Dimensions of Personality - Essay Example

QUESTION 1a Biological Theory The theory explains that at least some part of one's personality gets some influence fromone's biological makeup. According to Hans Eysenck, the most influential developer of the theory, every personal behavior is traceable to brain function and neural mechanisms. Biological theories touch on the direct (genetics) and indirect (e.g. facial appearance) influences of personality. Hans Eysenck’s theory gotclassified into three personality factors; extraversion-introversion, neuroticism and psychoticism. The extraversion dimension refers to an outgoing, impulsive and social personality with introversion being its opposite. Introverts tend to be tender minded, solitary and rather emotionally sensitive personalities. Thus, the extraversion-introversion dimension compares the shy, solitary people with the social and outgoing ones. Neuroticism is a dimension that ranges from calm and contained people to those that tend to be disorderly and nervous. Psychoticism refers to the characteristics of people found in mental institutions. These include poor concentration, poor memory, cruelty, liking for peculiar things and disregard for danger and set order. QUESTION 1b The biological theory is the most practical in terms of explaining the origin and functioning of one’s personality. To begin with, a child’s basic traits get predetermined even before birth. This is provable in the case of two people born in the same neighborhood, in financially and socially similar families. It commonly occurs that one of them portrays different personality from his counterpart. As a result of this factor, they get totally different careers, forms of entertainment and so on. Another example is the tendency for a person to portray one or both of his/her parents’ traits. Genetics is not the only biological influencer to one’s personality. Indirect biological influences, like facial appearance, also considerably affect one’s personality. Many teenagers and young adults receive great drive or demoralization from factors like body weight, skin tone, hair color and facial appearance (Burger, 78). QUESTION 2a and b A psychotherapist is the best professional to deal with stress and matters concerning school dropout. Other disorders dealt with in psychotherapy include depression, anxiety disorders, borderline personality disorders, obsessive personality disorder, eating disorders etc. A psychotherapist deals with psychotherapy which requires in depth knowledge of brain function. Psychotherapy involves the analysis and finding of a solution for mental and emotional problems. It involves face to face interaction with the therapist where other concerned individuals like parents, teachers and spouses may be invited to contribute. Apart from direct conversation, other methods also used include art, drama and movement. In psychotherapy, the patient opens up his/her life to the therapist who then treats the information offered as confidential. This information includes the patient’s feelings towards his/herself, spouses, workmates, parents, teachers and so on. A psychotherapist is a professional in the field of mental health. He/she receives training to be an attentive and sympathetic listener. In doing so, the therapist collects information concerning the causes of one’s social problems. After alienating them, he/she then suggests some strategies to resolve the problems and sometimes helps the patient change his/her attitudes and behavior. A good psychotherapist teaches skills and techniques that enable one to deal with his/her future social problems independently. Research has proved that poor self-image and interaction with his/her environment are the main causes of school dropouts. These issues also cause stress just as indicated in the cited case. QUESTION 2c The problems that cause stress which consequently lead to one giving up in a task (dropping out of school) are mental issues. A psychotherapist’s work is, comprehensively, to analyze and offer solutions for such problems together with helping out where attitude adjustment is of importance. In psychotherapy, improvement of self-image, social interaction and adjustment to uncontrollable circumstances get a thorough resolution (Mu?nsterberg, 56). QUESTION 3 Hans Eysenck The psychologist, Hans Jurgen Eysenck, lived between the years 1916 and 1997, one part in Germany and the other in Great Britain. By the time of his death, he was the most influential psychologist in the fields of intelligence and personality. His most famous philosophy is his model of personality where he explains that it exists in two dimensions namely extraversion and neuroticism. These two get thorough description in his book, ‘Dimensions of Personality’. Eysenck would go further to show how these two are used to pinpoint one’s personality based on the four personality types, earlier proposed by Hippocrates. For example, if a person portrays high neuroticism and extraversion, he is of the choleric type, but where one portrays a low in both, categorizes as a phlegmatic type. High neuroticism and low extraversion indicate a melancholic type whereas low neuroticism and high extraversion indicates a sanguine type. More of his philosophies include the direct correlation between genetics with IQ and personality. He also developed the super five personality traits discussed earlier. In studying genetic relation to personality, he used the case study method in the evaluation of two twins. He conducted a thorough analysis on them in the basis of neuroticism. He concluded that the biological factor is a vast influencer of neuroticism. The applications of his work include numerous books like ‘Dimensions of Personality’, ‘Uses and Abuses of Psychology’, and ‘Know Your Own I.Q.’ Also, the structure of many psychological modules follow his theories on personality. QUESTION 4 Methods of studying individuals on their personalities 1. The Hypothesis-Testing Approach- This method begins with a theory, that is, a general statement concerning the aspects of one’s personality and their relationship with the environment. A good theory is parsimonious and scientifically useful. From the theories, one or many hypotheses get created which then get tested in research. A hypothesis is a formal prediction of the results of an experiment derived to prove a certain theory. In this method, there are two method factors of experiment called independent and dependent experimental variables. Independent variables determine how the experimental groups divide while dependent variables measure the experimental groups. 2. Case Study method- In the case study method, a researcher concentrates on the evaluation of a single individual. Most often, the case study is usually a psychotherapy patient under observation by a therapist. The researcher records the individual’s history, present behavior and changes in behavior over the research period. This study method is of descriptive type that is; it focuses more on feelings and behavior than on numbers and statistics. 3. Statistical analysis of data- In this method, one utilizes statistical tests to evaluate a hypothesis. Some of the tests include analysis of variance, the correlation effect and the chi-square test. This method does not provide a definitive (yes or no) answer; rather, it provides the probability of events and leaves the decision to the researcher. 4. Personality Assessment- This is a rather common mode of personality research. It involves assessing an individual through measurements like quizzes, test and questionnaires, where one gets awarded a score at completion. Before using a personality test, however, one needs to test its reliability and validity. Reliability is the aspect of consistency of a test while validity refers to the extent of relevance of the test towards its purpose. 5. Sampling method- In this method, an individual gets selected to represent a group in a study. For example, in studying the behavior of teenagers, about 30 students in a high school may be selected to represent the whole population in the study. This method is especially advantageous where the population under study is too large to research (Burger, 175). QUESTION 5 There are five super traits used, broadly, to describe human personality. The five super traits, also called the big five factors include agreeableness, neuroticism, extraversion, openness and conscientiousness. Openness to experience refers to the degree of appreciation which one possesses for emotion, art and adventure plus his/her drive by unusual ideas and curiosity. Conscientiousness is the degree of a person’s self-discipline, loyalty, self-control and aim for achievement in contrast to spontaneous behavior. Extraversion refers to the tendency of a person to portray optimistic and energetic emotions, assertiveness, sociability and talkativeness. Agreeableness refers to the degree in which a person portrays compassion and cooperativeness rather than suspicion and antagonism. It can also be described as the measure of one’s helpful and trusting nature. Neuroticism refers to the measure of temperament a person possesses. It is a measure of the degree of emotional stability one possesses. The big five are the most comprehensive in describing an individual’s personality traits for various reasons. First, they enable listing of personality traits without overlapping and repetition. For example, one might state assertiveness and optimism as two separate components in an individual’s list of traits. These two describe the same trait thus bring out the aspect of repetition in the list. In the big five basis, however, these are contained in the openness to experience trait. Secondly, using the big five basis brings out consistency essential for official work or where there is a comparison of numerous people (Eysenck, 64). QUESTION 6 Normalcy refers to the situation where the behavior of an individual coincides with the common behavior in a society. The concept of normalcy varies with individuals, places, time and situation. Normalcy in a person radiates from his/her lifestyle and his/her day to day activities that add up to contribute towards the lifestyle. In America, for example, a rather complete example of a normal person is one who goes through all the basic stages of formal education. The person then gets an office job at around age 27 and gets a child a few years from this age. In addition to these occurrences, there exist no extreme or dramatic occurrences in his/her life. There exist many forms of mental illness. They include anxiety disorders where a person portrays fear and dread towards certain objects. A person gets diagnosed with mood disorders where he/she persistently feels extremely happy in some instances and extremely sad in others. Psychotic disorders occur where one possesses distorted modes of self-image and thinking. Other mental illnesses include eating disorders, impulsive control, addiction disorders and personality disorders. In an attempt to determine the status of an individual, in terms mental health, a mental status examination gets carried out on him/her. These examinations get carried out by mental health professionals at sites, where the one undergoing the test is most comfortable. The views of relatives, close friends and other closely associated people also receive consideration. This test mostly involves a physical evaluation followed by a question-and-answer session, mostly recorded with pen and paper (Michalko, 45). QUESTION 7 Personality Personality is the consistent behavior pattern and interpersonal relations that reflect from within an individual. Notice that personality entails two essential aspects. One is the essence of consistency. For behavior to be considered a personality trait, it has to remain unchanged through time and situations. The second most essential aspect of personality concerns the intrapersonal processes of an individual. These include all emotional and cognitive processes that go on within an individual, affecting how he/she reacts to situations. For this reason, a psychologist tends to concentrate on a patient’s inner emotions when evaluating him/her. Appreciating the importance of these two factors, however, does not imply that external forces do not influence personality. Certainly, aspects like the portrayal of parental teachings and response to the environment are clear proof of external influence on personality. There exist six approaches that best explain personality. The psychoanalytic approach states that the unconscious portion of the human brain and childhood experiences greatest influence personality. The trait approach states that one’s personality composes a number of accommodative traits, which Eysenck established as the five factors. According to the biological theory, an individual’s personality got predetermined even before his/her birth. The humanistic approach points to a person’s feelings and self-acceptance as the driving forces for his/her personality. The cognitive approach acknowledges the different ways in which people process information as the major determiner of their personalities. Last but not least is the behavioral or social learning theory which explains that permanent behavioral patterns originate from expectations and conditioning (Burger, 11). Works cited Burger, Jerry M. Personality. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. Mu?nsterberg, Hugo. Psychotherapy. New York: Cosimo, 2006. Print. Michalko, Rod, and Tanya Titchkosky.Rethinking Normalcy: A Disability Studies Reader. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 2009. Print. Eysenck, H J. Dimensions of Personality: A Record of Research Carried Out in Collaboration with H.t. Himmelweit ... [et Al.] with a Forword by Aubrey Lewis. London: Routledge& K. Paul, 1966. Print. Read More